Beer and tequila have always been emblematic of Mexico. But Baja’s wine region is getting respect with high scores from the American wine press and a new breed of winemakers dedicated to premium wine production. Now, if it can just get the government off its back and find water.
The majority of wine production is located in the Guadalupe Valley, 30 minutes east of Ensenada, which makes 90% of all wine in Mexico. Located on the peninsula known as Baja California, the name is misleading, as it’s not part of the U.S., but Mexico. There is some wine production on what is known as the “mainland,” meaning the entire country except for Baja. But even within Mexico, the Baja peninsula is somewhat cut off from the rest of the country. The official wine route, Ruta de Vino, supports growing infrastructure of wine tourism including lodging and terrific restaurants like the highly regarded Laja, and the new Finca Altozano. But it is not just the Guadalupe Valley. Moving south down the Peninsula are the Santo Tomas Valley, San Felipe, and San Vincente area, all of which are competing for Guadalupe Valley’s market share; and they possess two things that the Guadalupe Valley is losing – inexpensive land, and water.
A decade ago it was a different story. Wine production was dominated (and still is) by the larger wineries like L.A. Cetto, Domecq, Monte Xanic and Santo Tomas (which started grape growing in 1888 planting Palomino and Muscat) and smaller wineries were content selling cheap jug wine to an unimpressed Mexican market. Now Hacienda La Lomita, Adobe Guadalupe, Las Nubes, and Villa Montefiori are just four of over 70 wineries, only a handful of which are dedicated to crafting exceptional wine. “Americans have a very negative opinion of Mexican wine,” says Don Miller, owner of Adobe Guadalupe, the only American-owned winery in Baja. “But our renaissance is world-class. The Guadalupe Valley is like Napa Valley to the Mexicans,” he says. If the analogy works, then like Napa, the Guadalupe Valley will face its own persistent problems.
Wine has been made commercially in Baja since the 1920s when Donata Cetto, an Italian immigrant, bought a whisky distillery in Tijuana, originally built by an American who provided bootleg liquor to other Americans crossing the border during Prohibition. These days Vinos L.A. Cetto is the single largest winery in all of Mexico, producing 10 million liters and shipping to 16 countries. Located in downtown Tijuana, their facility allows visitors to taste wine without driving all the way into the wine region, though they have another facility in the Guadalupe Valley. Camillo Magoni, who grew up in Italy, has been the winemaker here for nearly 50 years, a job he clearly loves. “I never get up and regret having to go to work,” he tells me with a wry smile. I sit with him for a tasting of his wines which vary from inexpensive wines like his successful, though basic, Petite Sirah to his best wines including Sangiovese, reserve Cabernet Sauvignon laden with plush fruit, to Viognier, and a very cool wine called Blanco Boutique; a funky blend of 50 percent barrel fermented Chardonnay, 42 percent stainless steel Viognier and eight percent Pinot Noir; a creamy, excellent blend with a mild acidity. L.A. Cetto produces wines under five different labels and has 1,250 hectares of grapes planted in Mexico, though “wines from Baja are challenging,” Magoni says, referring to water issues, and getting the grapes fully ripe.
My April 2013 visit showed a surge in quality and winemaking techniques over my previous visit in 2011. “Right now it’s about good wine at the right price, not $100 bottles,” says Victor Segura, co-owner of Las Nubes Winery. “Yes, there is a market for high-priced wine, but the value market is bigger.” Very few Americans will drop $80 for a Bordeaux blend from Baja but many of the wines I sampled were under $40 and represented significant bang for the buck. Adobe Guadalupe, Villa Montefiori and Hacienda La Lomita, for example, all export about 2% of their production to California retailers and some restaurants. “It’s more of a hobby to export to the U.S. because we can sell all our wine currently in Mexico City,” says Hacienda La Lomita owner Fernando Perez Castro. But Castro understands the necessity of securing a future niche in the American market, as does Las Nubes.
The U.S. border states - California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas - provide the bulk of visitors to the emerging wine region. But the majority come from California, where the drive to the Guadalupe Valley is less than two hours from San Diego, however they run into a thorny legal issue. California residents cannot cross the border back to the U.S. with more than one liter of wine every 31 days whereas non-California residents can cross the border with up to five cases. The reason? It’s a direct result of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and pressure from San Diego area distributors concerned that cheap Mexican wine would flood the market. But it’s not just the U.S. places restrictions on wine, the Mexican government itself places undue burdens on Mexican wine.
Inside Baja there are a slew of issues confronting the wine industry: water, clonal selection, salinity, taxes, lack of infrastructure, and aggressive land development.
But even as good as Baja wines are, taxes for wineries within Mexico are as high as 40%. There is very little research of how clonally rootstock performs and the most vine planting trials are conducted, not at the university level or with subsidies from the government, but individual wineries must do it themselves, taking up valuable time. Real estate development is beginning to drive up land prices. To winemakers in Baja it’s still very much a Wild West vibe. “At this moment in the Guadalupe Valley there are no rules, so we can plant whatever we want,” Victor Segura of Las Nubes tells me. “Maybe in 20 years we’ll know what excels in this region.” But two decades hence might force the Baja wine industry into a constant state of playing catch-up unless they can compete now.
Regardless, competition in the Mexican wine industry is not the elephant in the room. It is water. What little water that does exist is subject to salinity, which was evidenced in some of the wines I tasted. Don Miller of Adobe Guadalupe told me he ripped out his Syrah because the briny water killed it, then he replanted using rootstock resistant to the salt. “The water we do get is rain water which comes from underground streams, and deposits some into wells, but very little is captured and it flows to the ocean.” There is no capture rate, no aquifers and no money to build reservoirs, though many wineries do have their own small reservoirs built on their property. “There is some water but no permission to drill for it,” says Fernando Perez Castro of La Lomita. He draws me a map of the rainfall over the last decade. Eight to 10 inches of annual rainfall is standard forcing more vineyards into dry farming, something that has been going on for years. What water that does exist, suggests Don Miller, is divided up with 1/3rd going to the city to Ensenada, 1/3rd given to L.A. Cetto (the largest winery in Mexico) and the last 1/3rd to everyone else; not just wineries but to the small towns dotting the landscape. Reclaimed water, originally from the Colorado River in the U.S., comes via aqueduct through Mexicali to Tijuana. But the quality of that reclaimed water is not good for the grapes, Miller says. There is a new Desalination plant in Ensenada, known as El Salitral, thereby freeing up 30% for the Valley, but that project is not moving forward nearly fast enough.
An additional hurdle is that there are no viable sources to obtain winemaking tools like pumps, hoses and barrels. Everything must therefore be imported, making wine expensive to a beer and tequila culture used to cheap booze. Americans visiting the Guadalupe Valley must contend with poor winery signage and in many cases hideous dirt roads guaranteed to strain the axle on your rental car. With all these problems can Mexico even begin to compete on a global scale?
Mexican wines are surprisingly good and visiting Ensenada, Tijuana or even Tecate, it’s worth drinking the local wines. Baja’s official wine route, Ruta del Vino, traverses 135 miles in total from the Guadalupe Valley all the way northeast to Tecate, better known for beer than wine. And in spite of a host of problems with wine growing here, there are pockets of wineries which can best their American counterparts for less cost. Commercial plantings in Guadalupe Valley began in the early 1940s though there were original plantings with the Spanish missionaries.
Today Hacienda La Lomita and their modern holistic tasting room reflect the positive changes underway in Baja’s wine region. “We need new blood in the Valley,” says owner Fernando Perez Castro. His three-story gravity fed open-air facility perched on a hill uses native yeasts and estate fruit, avoiding insecticides, herbicides and pesticides to craft wines that can rival California. Aiming for production of 4,000 cases, one of their flagship wines is Pagano, a beautiful Grenache from 55 year-old vines. The Italian-owned Villa Montefiori’s focus is on estate-grown Italian varieties, using rootstock from France and Italy. Located six miles from the ocean at 1,300 feet they have 12 varieties in the ground including Nebbiolo, Barbera and Tempranillo. Overall Grenache, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon from hillside locations usually produce better quality fruit than valley floor plantings. Don Miller of Adobe Guadalupe first came from California to work with an orphanage. “We tasted a few wines in 1996 and thought it was pretty good.” Though he looked for property in California, land prices in Napa, Sonoma and Monterey were already astronomical. So Baja was the smart choice. His first wine was made in 2000 and available for sale in 2003. Miller originally bought 16 hectares but has expanded to 26. Adobe Guadalupe’s current winemaker hails from Chile and reflects the growing diversity represented in Mexico. “It’s more exciting for a winemaker here - the weather and soil is more similar to north of Santiago in Chile, but the Guadalupe Valley is like a mini-laboratory.” They focus on blends, a wide diversity of Bordeaux with Italian varieties for blending, and typical Châteauneuf-du-Pape style wines which are uniformly excellent.
“There’s a big market for good wine and there’s a lot of money here in Mexico,” says winemaker of Vena Cava, and British transplant Phil Gregory. “Guadalupe Valley is the name that brings people here.” And Vena Cava continues to draw people with their new on site called restaurant Corazon de Tierra which is also helping to elevate the quality and presentation of local foods. Finca Altozano as well has captured the best of the area with its open-air restaurant exposing everyone to fresh seafood and the stunning views of the Valley. A grill to one side, views all around and a packed house on a warm summer night with a chilled glass of local rosé is all you need. One of the more popular wineries is Vina de Liceaga with its spacious tasting room lined with dark Choctaw stone. You’ll find Chenin Blanc with a strong acidity, Cabernets, Syrah, Merlot and blends. The red wines are good, but lack full fruit and balance, therefore the white wines standout. Vina de Liceaga first planted in 1993, one of the few to become successful early in part due to their barrel program of French oak barrels purchased from California. "The culture of wine is growing in Baja,” says owner Myrna Esquer de Liceaga and her winery is producing about 5,000 cases, including grappa.
Aldo Cesar Palafox is one of the few wineries in the Santo Tomas Valley, proving that exceptional wine which is not just made in the Guadalupe Valley. Though Santa Tomas Winery is the largest player here, Palafox cannot go unnoticed. With 500 hectares in total and with 40 planted their 2,000 cases are selling quickly. They are making amazing wines with depth, character and minerality, more than you find in Guadalupe Valley. Rosé, Chenin Blanc, and red blends of Bordeaux and Italians varieties, this region is slightly cooler than Guadalupe Valley but the wines express that with deeper and richer fruit. But they are off the map considering they are located on the road to Santa Tomas Winery, the massive vineyards with started grape growing in Mexico in 1888. Other wines to look for when you’re in the Baja region include Rogant, who make one of the best Sauvignon Blancs in the state; Emeve; a relatively new producer who is making a very nice spicy Syrah with blackberry fruit and a whisper of coffee, and the Baron Balch’e Double Blanc, a fantastic blend of Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. Even in Tecate, west of Tijuana, home of the brewery giant Tecate Beer, there are a handful of wineries like Cava Garcia, where the wines are inexpensive and pleasant, and locals gather to share a bottle in the rustic, remote though accessible tasting room helmed by winemaker Pedro Garcia Frias.
The wine roads in Baja are not nearly as picturesque as California, these are more rustic, sullen, and bleak in parts. That doesn't mean the Valley is inhospitable, it possesses a stark beauty of low hills and half constructed buildings which are a counterpoint to the goats and sudden appearance of well-manicured vines and orchards of citrus and olive trees. There is a simple honesty to this Valley. There are some lodgings here but many people stay at the very American-friendly Hotel Coral located on the coast in Ensenada. This traditional hotel caters to wine tourists with vans and shuttles taking people out to the Guadalupe Valley for the day. But even where to stay is morphing into a more viable wine culture. Cuatro Cuartos is indicative of the substantial changes underway. A new development sponsored by a group of private investors has begun to transform 700 hectares overlooking the ocean into a winery, hotel and 66 residential lots into what looks to be one of the hippest ventures and a modern approach to wine culture. Their 16 hectares of vines produce wines including a luscious Sauvignon Blanc and a red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Tempranillo made by Baja winemaker Victor Torres, which are exclusive to the residents of this impressive and thoughtfully designed community.
Both Mexicans and Americans, and even Europeans, are visiting the Guadalupe Valley in ever-greater numbers. The Valley stands at a crossroads with formidable obstacles in its path. “What is in our best interest?” Victor Segura asks rhetorically. “Water, development, research, taxes?” He uses the analogy of a burgeoning family outgrowing their house and how they cope with the issue at hand. “You need more rooms to support your growing family, but instead you buy a new car.” And this is where Mexico is failing its potentially powerful wine industry. It needs serious financial support from the government. In spite of the frustration, the potential of Baja wine is impressive. Segura sums it up as he surveys the Valley from his modern stone winery perched on the hillside, looking across first leaf vines, his own field of dreams，and echoing the famous line from the American film, Field of Dreams says, “If you build it, they will come”. The most poignant comment however came from a woman I met at Finca Altozano, a French woman originally from Bordeaux, she resides in Baja and was just about to get her citizenship from Mexico. We spoke of the multitude of problems with the Mexican wine industry and the immense promise. I asked her if the needed changes – infrastructure, money, water, and others are right for the Valley, after all, gentrification would directly impact the rural way of life here. She looked at me and with a sincere tone and in her melodious French accent said, "You don't change the valley, the valley changes you." Whatever the future may bring, she is correct, a visit to Baja will change you.